Vans Custom Culture Asia

Vans has brought the Custom Culture Competition to Asia for the first time ever this year. With a well-established reputation for individualism and self-expression, the Vans brand spirit is perfectly embodied through this competition. Working with the goal of rallying Asia’s creative community and providing a new platform to help showcase the region’s burgeoning creators, the contest invites everyone to flaunt their creativity for a chance to see their design make its way onto a pair of these iconic canvas shoes.

For the competition, Vans has invited various respected artists from around Asia as both mentors and judges. Mentors will help the selected finalists to flesh out and complete their final design. These mentors include Chinese visual artist Lin Wenxin, South Korean illustrator Original Punk, Hong Kong-based woodworking atelier Start from Zero, Singapore-based husband-and-wife creative duo Sabotage, self-taught Malaysian street artist Fritilldea, and India-based street artist duo Varsha Nair. Judges include renowned San Francisco-based illustrator Jay Howell, Nini Sum of the Shanghai-based artist duo IdleBeats, plus many more.

Now, the six talented finalists from China, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and India have all finished their designs alongside their respective mentors. The final round will decide who will win a trip to House of Vans London and have their creation debuted in stores Asia-wide next year! See the final entries below and vote for your favorites by clicking here.

现在，六位来自中国、韩国、香港、马来西亚、新加坡和印度才华横溢的设计师分别在各自导师的帮助下完成了最后的鞋履设计。最后一轮比赛的结果将会决定谁最终能赢得前往参加House of Vans伦敦站的机会，获胜的设计还将在明年亮相亚洲地区的Vans门店公开发售！下面是所有最终入围的决赛作品，来看看哪一款是你的最爱，点击此处，为它投上一票。

“The initial idea of this design is to make it appealing to a large audience while also bringing the Vans spirit alive. The reason I used this color combination is because I wanted to design a pair of summer shoes. It’s mainly green, dotted by red, with a little watermelon feeling.”

“My design is inspired by comics. It’s a bit different from what people see in popular comics. This idea I came up with can be easily executed on a pair of Authentic shoes. I wanted to make a scary character in a witty situation, in order to maximize the humorous atmosphere.”

“First things first, it’s got to be something I would wear. I like to wear simple colored shoes for ease of outfit matching. I wanted to create something for everyday use, yet as an artist, it has to be a recognizable shoe that was designed by me.”

“My design was inspired by how Vans has influenced the people in different parts of Asia. The design portrays different cultures in Asia, with people from Malaysia, Singapore, China, India, and Korea, focusing on traditional outfits, transportation, and architectures from the ’60s and ’70s.”

“As an artist, I paint on various platforms, bringing the style and flow of the Japanese craft onto different media apart from the skin. I do not merely want to create a pretty image without flow and form.”

“My inspiration for the shoe comes from the local essence of places I’ve traveled. I’ve traveled to many major cities in Asia. The elements in my shoe are inspired by the things I’ve observed and loved in the Asian region and my motherland India.”